====== Pandemic ======

see [[COVID-19 Pandemic]]. 
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A pandemic (from Greek πᾶν, pan, "all" and δῆμος, demos, "people") is an epidemic of disease that has spread across a large region, for instance, multiple continents or worldwide, affecting a substantial number of people. A widespread endemic disease with a stable number of infected people is not a pandemic. Widespread endemic diseases with a stable number of infected people such as recurrences of seasonal influenza are generally excluded as they occur simultaneously in large regions of the globe rather than being spread worldwide.
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During the period of scaling-up in a pandemic, adequate medical resources are still available but there are mandated reductions in surgery and/or consultations in order to free-up intensive care unit (ICU) capacity, reduce the use of protective personal equipment (PPE), and decrease hospital traffic to mitigate viral spread within health care settings
((Events I of M (US) F on M and PHP for C. Crisis Standards of Care. National
Academies Press; 2010. doi:10.17226/12787)).
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[[COVID-19]] has high homology to other pathogenic [[coronavirus]]es, such as those originating from bat-related [[zoonosis]] (SARS-CoV), which caused approximately 646 deaths in China at the start of the decade. The [[mortality]] rate for [[COVID-19]] is not as high (approximately 2-3%), but its rapid propagation has resulted in the activation of [[protocol]]s to stop its spread. This pathogen has the potential to become a [[pandemic]]. It is therefore vital to follow the personal care [[recommendation]]s issued by the [[World Health Organization]]
((Palacios Cruz M, Santos E, Velázquez Cervantes MA, León Juárez M. COVID-19, a 
worldwide public health emergency. Rev Clin Esp. 2020 Mar 20. pii:
S0014-2565(20)30092-8. doi: 10.1016/j.rce.2020.03.001. [Epub ahead of print]
Review. English, Spanish. PubMed PMID: 32204922.)).